FNM Result 11th November

Yes, two posts in quick succession, but I didn't think the little chocolate lament would fit in particularly well with this week's FNM result.

So another experimental week, this time I was using a slightly altered version of the Illusions deck I used at last Sunday's tournament.  A few counterspells have been removed to add a few unsummon spells, just so I have a defence against creatures which are already out.  I had high hopes for this deck, but sadly it still needs an awful lot of work, and completely fell apart on the night, resulting in my worst FNM performance since I started attending.  In one particular game I was killed in 6 turns, and in every turn all I did was play a land.  It was painful, to be quite honest.  The only victory of the night I got was against someone who had only been playing for a couple of months, and was at his first ever tournament of any description.

I will probably be unable to go to next week's FNM as I'll be setting up for the Birmingham Memorabilia event on the Friday afternoon, but if I get finished quickly enough then I will see if I can make it, and this time I will probably be playing Vampires again.  I'm also currently putting together a blue/black Zombie deck, but I've yet to playtest it.  However, given my love of zombies in general, this deck could well become my main deck if it works well.  I have a couple of cards on order for it and will post a decklist when they arrive, and then I'll be updating as and when I get a chance to see how it runs :)

But in the meantime, here's a breakdown of the Illusions' embarrasing performance on Friday

Game 1: Lost 2-0 vs Green Werewolves

Game 2: Lost 2-1 vs Red/Black Vampires

Game 3: Won 2-0 vs Green Werewolves & Tokens

Game 4: Lost 2-0 vs White Artifacts

Game 5: Bye (automatic 2-0 win)

It's the first time I've had a bye for poor performance in FNM, so I'm now feeling more determined than ever to get my Vampires and Elves up to a good fighting standard, and the sculpt these new Zombies into something terrifying.

Elf Deck List

Yes, I'm posting a third blog entry for this evening.  Just before I head off to bed I wanted to finally post my Elf deck list from Magic The Gathering.  There's another mini tournament tomorrow, so it's got my MTG brain working away, and as a result I feel compelled to do this.

To be honest I'd rather be giving my new Vampires another test run, but seeing as my sister's going to be using them then I shall stick with my tried, tested, and much-loved Elves.  I have spent months working at this deck and am happy with it, but the Vampires are new and in need of as much playtesting as possible!

I have been on eBay this morning and purchased the only Elf this deck was missing :) I have to admit I didn't even know about her until this morning, but was so good that I quite simply HAD to get her and slot her into my deck.  Character-wise she's a bit of a mis-match, but ability-wise she melds nicely and will be a very welcome addition.  So the following list is not actually the one I'll use tomorrow, but in about a week it will be the final (probably) version of my first-choice deck... I rather think I'll be heartbroken when the Scars block rolls out of Standard Legal!

Main deck (yes it's 68 cards! *gasp* sue me.)

• 4x Llanowar Elves
• 4xCopperhorn Scout
• 4x Ezuri's Archers
• 4x Ezuri's Brigade
• 4x Elvish Archdruid
• 4x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
• 2x Glissa, The Traitor
• 4x Platinum Emperion
• 4x Swiftfoot Boots
• 4x Darksteel Plate
• 4x Naturalize
• 2x Titanic Growth
• 19x Forest
• 5x Swamp

Sideboard:

• 4x Gladecover Scout
• 2x Titanic Growth
• 2x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
• 2x Trepanation Blade
• 2x Phyrexian Metamorph

FNM Result 4th November

Yep, it's Friday Night Magic results time!  And last night was a little different because I finally played with my vampire deck instead of my usual elves.  They do work a little slower than my elf deck, but I have to say they're a lot more fun to use, and I did a lot better than normal with them!  Sorin Markov, Bloodlord of Vaasgoth, and Grave Titan all saw action, so I did quite well with the hands I drew.

There were two downsides to the evening though.  Firstly the traffic was ridiculous so I arrived over half an hour late.  I was given a bye (automatic win), but I'd have rather had a proper game even if there was a chance I would have lost.  And secondly at the end of the night I left early and forgot to stay for the random promo giveaway.  November's FNM promo is a Go For The Throat, which I really like so am a bit annoyed with myself for losing the chance to win one.

But aside from that, I had fun.  Like I said, the Vampires were fun, and even when they lost they certainly put up a fight.  So, the results in full...

Game 1 - Bye (Win 2-0)

Game 2 - Lost 2-0 vs White tokens

Game 3 - Lost 2-1 vs Artifacts

Game 4 - Won 2-0 vs White tokens

Game 5 - Won 2-1 vs Vampires

Game 6 - Won 2-1 vs Vampires

I'm using the Elves again in a tournament tomorrow, but I think they may have to go into a FNM timeshare with the Vampires :) I'll probably use Vampires all month at FNM to see how they do, but at the moment they do seem to be the more powerful deck.

Sorin Markov has arrived...

...and I can't wait to try out the finished Vampire deck with him in it.  Well, I say "finished" but it's not. This is more like version 2.0.  I'm completely certain that it will need a lot more work in coming weeks, but for now it's looking pretty decent.  The Bloodlord of Vaasgoths arrived today as well, so they're ready to slot into the deck tomorrow.  I'm a little worried about the mana-curve in this deck, so I've broken slightly from the Vampire theme and am looking at throwing in a pair of Diregraf Ghouls to give a couple of 1-drop creaturs to help give the deck some staying power until the more powerful creatures come out to play.  I really want to take it to FNM this week, but after the truly embarrasing Innistrad celebration yesterday I kinda want to go back to the Elves to give my confidence a bit of a boost.

So yup.  Vampire deck is now Planeswalkered up and ready to go :) Hopefully tomorrow I'll get a full lunch break at work and I can test it against my trusty Elves.

Innistrad celebration

It's 6:45pm on Sunday evening, and for the first time in a week I finally have some time to just sit back and chill.  Sure I've been doing things like Magic tournaments, but this is the first time that I've been able to stop, put my feet up, and just know that I don't have to be rushing out of the door for this, that, or the other.  It's quite nice.

Well the Innistrad celebration event was an absolute dismal failure.  I hurriedly put together a zombie token deck before leaving the house, and it proceeded to get annihilated in every single game.  I can't even give a result breakdown, because the games were over so fast that I didn't even get time to tell what decks my opponents were using.  The biggest annoyance was the fact that I lent my Elves to someone else to use, and he actually ended up placing 6th out of 12, whereas I came in rock bottom.

I have learned two valuable lessons though.  Firstly, that swiftly made decks quite simply don't work in MTG.  They need time and refinement to be able to do anything.  And secondly, that my Elves have been shaped and honed into a good deck at last.  I still like my vampire backup deck (and will like it even more so when Sorin Markov arrives), but Elves are definitely the way forward for me.  I'm looking forward to FNM this Friday to give my vampires a test run, but next Sunday it'll definitely be Elves which get my full attention again.  Saying that, I might even forego the vampires this Friday and go Elvish again.  Even Rich said today that the latest version of my Elf deck is pretty kickass, so I think it's time to start unleashing it.

On the plus side today, I did get two more promos (one shiney, one full-art), and another booster pack.  So it wasn't a total loss.

FNM Result 28th October

Wow, what a manic day it was yesterday!  Work was truly ridiculously busy, which meant that I didn't get any breaks at all and still finished 15 minutes late, so that put me struggling for time right from the offset.  So I had to scoot back from Lichfield to Sutton like a bat out of hell in order to pick up my sister, who was attending her first Friday Night Magic :) Then she hopped on the back of the bike, we scooted into Birmingham, and just made it in time for registration.  It's cool that she's getting into the game, at the moment she's using the vampire deck which I threw together for her, but she's started to buy a few of her own cards and is looking at getting a starter deck as well which she can chop and change.

The vampire deck's actually working pretty well.  I've ordered a set of 4 Bloodlord of Vaasgoths (which I plan to put 2 of into the deck), and a pair of Sorin Markovs to make it a bit tougher, so I'm looking forward to seeing those arrive.  I'm hoping that my sister gets her deck sorted soon, as I'm quite looking forward to trying this deck out myself at FNM!

So in the meantime I'm sticking with my elves.  It's been heavily overhauled since I last used it.  It used to be a pure elf deck, but now I've taken out a load of low-cost elves in order to put in 4 Darksteel Plates, 4 Platinum Emperions, and 4 Swiftfoot Boots.  After last night I've got to say the Plate and the Boots pulled their weight, but the Emperions didn't really do too much.  So I'm going to tweak it a little more today and take it in with me to the Innistrad celebration event this Sunday.

All in all, it was another average performance for the Elves, finishing 12th out of 19, and here was the breakdown:

Game 1 - Lost 2-0 vs White Creature Tokens

Game 2 - Won 2-1 vs Blue/White Control & Artifacts

Game 3 - Lost 2-0 vs Elves

Game 4 - Won 2-0 vs Red/Blue Flashback

Game 5 - Lost 2-1 vs Black/Red Vampires

My sister also won 2 and lost 3, so that was a good performance for a first FNM :) So, time to go Elf-adjusting, and I'll let you all know how they get on on Sunday!  ...unless my sister can't make it on Sunday, in which case I'll be playing vamps!

FNM Result 21st October

Just a quick blog entry this evening.  It's been a rough couple of days settling into my new job.  Today again there was no lunch break and no drink breaks, so by the time I got out of work my brain was feeling well and truly frazzled and I was physically exhausted.  But Friday Night Magic only comes around once a week, so I didn't want to miss out.  I wish there was somewhere nearer to Lichfield that did a FNM, but as it currently stands I have to make the 20 mile ride into Birmingham to play.  As you can imagine, by the time I was there and ready to play, I wasn't in the most tactical frame of mind!

Anyways, this week the Elves had earned a rest from having their asses kicked, and I decided to try out my blue Illusions/Artifacts deck.  It hasn't really been tested, but I've had it for a few weeks now and thought it was time to give it a baptism of fire.  It actually started very well, winning in the first round, but then it lost the next 3 rounds and then just about scraped a victory in the final round.  It was interesting to try out a different play style, but I'm looking forward to returning to normal next week.  Although I'm actually unsure of what too run next Friday.  My Elves have a new secret weapon which I'm dying to try out, but at the same time I'm also eager to give my newly made vampire deck a try to see how it plays.  The most likely outcome will be Elves next Friday, and then Vampires the weekend after :)  I'll probably post a deck list for my new and (hopefully) improved Elves at some point this week.  In the meantime, here is the full breakdown of this week's result.

Round 1: Won 2-1 vs Green & White

Round 2: Lost 2-0 vs Artifacts

Round 3: Lost 2-0 vs White Humans

Round 4: Lost 2-1 vs Black & Red Burn

Round 5: Won 2-1 vs White Tokens

A Strange New World

It's been a quiet couple of days on the blogging front, so I thought I might as well do a quick entry before it's time to turn in for the night.

Well I'm past the half way point in the first week of my new job.  So far it's been pretty mind-fragging.  I may have worked at this place before, but I'm having to learn a whole new side of the job and it's a lot to take in.  On the plus side I feel like I'm picking it up quite quickly, I'm just going slowly when it comes to carrying out all of the new stuff.  Obviously I know that I'm going to be slow - everyone's always slow when they start a new job, speed comes with time - but I've always hated feeling like I'm holding everyone else up, and that's kind of how I've felt so far this week.

One thing which has been good is having a full lunch hour in which to play Magic :-D  I've been teaching my sister to play lately and she's been enjoying it, so I told her I'd put together a vampire deck for her to use.  It's not a refined deck in the slightest, but I just put together creatures and spells that felt right, and lo and behold!  I made a deck which I can't frikkin' beat lol  Even though she's just a beginner, nothing I do with my Elves seems to be able to beat these vapires!  There wasn't time for a lunch break today, but hopefully there will be tomorrow.  So I'm going to try my Illusions against the vampires, and if I still can't beat the damned things then I think I might have to take them to Friday Night Magic this week ;)

So yep, that's been about the extent of my week so far.  Lots of work, lots of brain-overload, and lots of Magic.  And now it's time for lots of sleep!

FNM Result

Yesterday was Friday, and that can mean only one thing!  New QI!  No, that's not it.  New movies on Sky Go!  No, that's not it either....  Okay, Friday means lots of things.  But in my case I'm referring to Friday Night Magic!  Having been swept up in the addictive, geeky fun of Magic the Gathering in recent months, I now try to get to our local Friday Night Magic event as often as possible.  For those unfamiliar with Magic I plan to do a brief summary at some point in the next few days (I can sense your excitement), but for those who know what I'm talking about, FNM is a standard constructed deck format, and is a great way to have fun with the hobby, make new friends, and improve your deck through the best possible way - losing!

Seriously though, losing is the best way to find your deck's weak points.  Normally I play an Elf deck, and I've got a few more cards on their way for me to add into it for next Friday, and hopefully make it a bit more formidable.  The optimum number of cards to have in your deck is 60, and sadly my new additions will take mine up to 73, so I think I need to cut back a bit.  I've worked out how I can cut it back to 60, but if I do that then it might be leaving it a little bit too vulnerable.  So the plan of action is to try out 73, and then if I find it's not working out I'll start trimming back a couple at a time until it's running smoothly.

So anyhoos, my results from last night.  Across 5 rounds:

1) Lost 2-0 vs. White Control

2) Won 2-0 vs. Green Humans

3) Lost 2-0 vs. Red & Black Vampires

4) Won 2-0 vs. Green & White Humans & Werewolves

5) Lost 2-0 vs. Red Burn.

So overall I finished 21st out of 28, which isn't too bad.  Hoping my new additions will bump me up into the top 20 next week.  My deck's very inconsistent at the moment, but does seem to be averaging out wins and losses.  I do also have a blue Illusions deck which I'm dying to try out, so I may play Elves next Friday and then switch to Illusions the week after.  The nice thing is that my new cards will fit into both decks, so I can chop and change to find the best combinations.

Stay tuned next week to see what happens!